Intel Corp. on Friday disclosed plans to enable 64-bit processing capability on a low-cost Intel Pentium 4 processor clocked at 2.66GHz. The chip is likely to be priced well below $163 and enable very low-cost computers with Enhanced Memory 64 Technology. The move outlines Intel's strong support for 64-bit capability in x86 desktop processors. Intel Pentium 4 processor 506 will be clocked at 2.66MHz and will include 1MB of L2 cache. The chip is expected to replace Intel Pentium 505 processor that has the same clock-speed and amount of cache, but does not have EM64T as well as Intel Hyper-Threading technology. Intel did not indicate whether it plans to enable the Hyper-Threading on the Intel Pentium 506 chip. The new product is expected to be 533MHz processor system bus LGA775 infrastructure compatible, but a new BIOS for a mainboard will be needed to take advantage of the EM64T.

Intel will initiate supply of the Pentium 4 506 processor on the 27th of May, 2005, whereas mass supplies are scheduled for the 10th of June.